Seattle

In May I did some traveling and at the time really wanted to write about it. I didn't bring my computer with me, and as fancy as my ipod is these days, I did not want to blog on that thing. So here we are, a month & a half later. The luster of what I was feeling has long since faded, but I'm starting to get back in the writing mood again.

Seattle! A lovely city with a cold industrial undertone, I thoroughly enjoyed walking around here but felt like I surely must be missing something. I did not fall in love with it. We stayed in the downtown area, very close to all the touristy things. We walked everywhere! Everything is pretty easy to get to with the Metro so big plus for that! I love cities where you can hop on the train right out of the airport & a short while later, there are you are in the heart of it. Among our sightseeing adventures were the Spaceneedle, Public Market, Aquarium, a short visit to Bainbridge Island, Snoqualmie Falls & Twede's Cafe (famously known as the setting for Twin Peaks), the original Starbucks, a SciFi/Music Museum and The Fremont Troll.

First things first. We did not take the metro to the Twin Peaks stuff. I can only imagine that might take a thousand hours. Luckily we had a friend living in Seattle who also loves Twin Peaks & geeked out with me a little by bringing us to the falls with "The Great Northern" in the background & to the Twin Peaks diner. There was a pretty awesome wanted poster on a telephone pole outside the diner that I only noticed as we were driving off. Killer Bob wanted by Sheriff Harry S. Truman. Scary!

Walking around Seattle, I had to ask myself... what year is it?

As far as food goes, we ate at a few places besides the Spaceneedle & Twede's - Bang Bang Cafe, Owl 'N Thistle and Streamliner Diner. Eating at the Spaceneedle is pricey, but you get admission to the observation deck included so you might as well go all out if you are going to go there. They were very accommodating to us vegetarians and I ordered way more than I could eat, resulting in a very heavy bill. Yikes! My friend Heather found Bang Bang Cafe online & we decided to check it out. We really liked it & ate there twice, maybe even 3 times in a 3 day period. We also ate at Owl 'N Thistle, an Irish Pub downtown that is pretty cute inside with its library full of law books. The food was okay, nothing to rave about, except we did get beer battered brie, which was pretty awesome. Streamliner Diner, which I keep wanting to call Steamliner since we had to take a ferry to get there, was so good. I had the vegetarian chili which came with a biscuit and it was heavenly.

Seattle has a lot of cute little gems to it. I wish I had one more day to spend there. We took the monorail, which was fun, but basically only goes from the Spaceneedle to Downtown, a one stop ride. We took a ferry to Bainbridge Island b/c it was under $5 round trip, and a boat tour around Seattle cost a ton more than that. We also saw a streetcar driving around, but somehow never managed to get on it. We walked most everywhere, but did take a few buses here & there, which are free in certain areas downtown. Score one for Seattle. From Seattle we took the train down to Portland, which was really comfortable, clean, fast and only $30.

Some more little bits of Seattle:

www.streamlinerdiner.com
www.yelp.com/biz/bang-bang-cafe-seattle
www.owlnthistle.com
www.twedescafe.com

My last day as a 33 year old.

This video is ridiculous, but... yeah.

Midnight in Paris

I really should take the effort to write while the ideas are still fresh in my mind, but oh how time slips away! I went to see Midnight in Paris on Sunday & had all these ideas & thoughts floating around in my head about why I liked it so much & all the little quirks & niches about it that made it so great. Now, I'm not sure if I'll get there, but I'll give it a little try.

I loved this movie. There were so many little moments that make this film great. From the epic shots of Paris & beyond, down to Owen Wilson's watch reading midnight. I spent a couple weeks in Paris a few years ago & just shot after shot in this film brought back feelings of how lovely & beautiful it is & oh I've been there! A true pleasure was seeing a brief scene in my absolute favorite place on Earth - Monet's House & Gardens. It's seriously gorgeous there and had a complete pull on me when I went that it felt like home, so when I saw the little bits of it, my heart skipped a beat. There is a scene at Versailles, and in the background I see this fountain that I adore, Apollon's Fountain. Even though they didn't shoot near it, I saw it there & the thought remains with me how magnificent it is.

I've always really enjoyed the majority of Woody Allen films, but this particularly hits a real point and how it is gone about showing that point to us is pretty creative & fun. People are often nostalgic. People often think the grass is always greener on the other side. Sometimes we need to realize what is worth chasing & what is just a fantasy.

I love the never-ending parade of artists & literary greats. I loved the characters. There are so many funny moments in this film. I found myself wondering about the road Rachel McAdams' character goes down. As she gets closer & closer to the end of the film, I'm left wondering if she was written that way so Owen Wilson's actions are more justified, or if it is only that way to drive home the point about their relationship.

Maybe why I like this one so much is because it takes a page out of The Purple Rose of Cairo, another Allen film I adore. Maybe I too just like escapism.

Tiding me over

I suppose two months of no blogging is pretty bad. I have been a busy girl! The 60 hour work weeks do not help, but I have been out around the country for a bit. More on that later when I'm not so lazy & tired of being on the go. Here's a picture from when I was spending the night at Chicago O'Hare.